It’s official. The world has gone mad. People are hoarding toilet paper to stave off the latest virus sweeping the world. Why? What can toilet paper possibly do to stop the virus? I really do understand hand sanitizer, cleaning wipes, and other cleaning products being virtually impossible to find, but toilet paper? What’s that all about? Unless you’re planning on wrapping your entire house in toilet paper and hiding inside until this is over, I don’t see much value in hoarding it.
This from someone who has multiple large packages of Charmin in my storage closet. But that’s not because of the virus, that’s a throwback to my childhood when we would regularly run out and not have any money to buy more. My mother’s solution was for us to use dress patterns she no longer wanted. A viable solution, but I’d much rather have Charmin than McCall’s. So, I always have more than two people could use on a daily basis. Good thing, because our daughter regularly calls to say she’s out and it’s too late to go to the store. Another good thing is because right now you can’t find Charmin at Wal-Mart. Again… Why?
The whole thing is crazy. Yes, people have died. A bunch of people and that’s horrible, but more have died from the annual flu. Considerably more, and “they” haven’t shut down the world to prevent those deaths. I understand it’s a percentage problem. The percent of people dying from the virus is more than from the flu. Okay. I get that. I also get that common sense has totally flown out the window. Along with the toilet paper.
You can’t buy a face mask. Not that you need one, because every expert in the world (literally) has said they’re pointless. Bottled water is a rare commodity. And did I mention you can’t find toilet paper? But is anyone listening? No.
What happened to faith? It seems to be as elusive as toilet paper right now. It seems to me that the logical way to prevent the spread of the virus would be to take common sense approaches. Wash your hands regularly should be step one. I also think it makes more sense to dry your hands with a paper towel than a regular towel. That way any residual germs aren’t hanging around to re-infect you.
I hadn’t really thought about that before, but somehow, I managed to come up with a nasty case of conjunctivitis. Just when I finally got glasses so I could see correctly, my eye looked like someone had punched me. I told them that at the ER and the technician looked at Ed, wondering if he had done it. Since Ed didn’t have a corresponding black eye from me punching him back, that was a no-brainer. It was a virus and not a husband that had rendered my eye blood red.
When we got home with the medicine, I saw on the paperwork about the paper towel versus hand towel issue. That makes so much sense. Luckily, I have Viva stockpiled, too, because I’m sure once people realize how smart that is, they’ll start hoarding it, too.
Ed made a grocery store run today to pick up some sausage for us. The shelves holding the toilet paper were empty. The meat section was cleaned out. Luckily, they had our sausage, so I guess it’s not all that popular. They also had bottled water, which was a surprise, because that’s another thing in short supply. I think tap water filtered through my refrigerator solves that problem, so I have bottled water on hand only for emergencies.
That’s an important word. Emergency. And really overused. Right now, I don’t see what’s going on as an emergency. I think it’s more an overreaction to a problem. Swine flu, H1N1, Asian flu, etc. There seems to be one “emergency” every year, and guess what. We’re still here. So, could we all just chill out and take sensible precautions? Is that asking too much?
It all really boils down to one word. Faith. What’s that adage? God helps those who help themselves? Something like that. And I’m pretty sure He doesn’t mean to help ourselves by filling our guest room with toilet paper packages. He means to take sensible precautions and have faith that this too will pass. That approach makes a lot more sense to me than hoarding toilet paper.